Japan is developing a strong hydrogen industry, with brands such as Toyota taking the lead over Volkswagen and Tesla. However, they have now taken an unexpected turn by ignoring the fuel altogether and opening a new chapter in sustainable mobility. This is the new magnetic levitation engine that seems to be coming from the future and could spell the end of all fossil fuels. What’s more, experts are talking about leaving behind EVs, which seemed to be the future.
Hydrogen is not the future, and Japan is clear: New engines will “levitate” instead of make combustion
OIST unveils a record-breaking magnetic levitation engine for the transportation sector to transform the industry. This innovation from the Quantum Machines Unit or OIST shows what the future of automobiles could be like, departing from typical engine, battery, or fuel systems (as well as non-conventional ICE systems).
The working of this splendid engine is based on the principle of magnetic levitation, or maglev, as it has been termed. OIST team has designed a floating structure that can move in a vacuum environment with the help of graphite and magnets. This platform can be anchored to balance without touching the ground or being supported by any machines, in essence, the structure can float.
- Graphite Composite: A thick square plate was designed by the team to make a thin plate of one centimeter in size by chemically coating small graphite beads with silica, and the coated powder was infused with wax.
- Magnetic Grid: It is placed above magnetic fields that are arranged in the form of a grid, thus enabling the plate to levitate steadily.
- Vacuum Environment: It is free from vibration and is kept in a high vacuum to reduce noises as much as possible.
- Feedback System: This is done with the help of a mirror, which is used to observe the upward/downward movement of the slab, and a feedback loop is provided to reduce the movement and provide stability.
The OIST magnetic levitation engine, in detail: Why it could be the end of all existing fuels
While specific performance metrics are still being refined, the OIST magnetic levitation engine boasts several impressive characteristics:
- Power Efficiency: Also, it differs from the usual maglev systems where the electricity supply is needed all the time; this engine requires only the starting power to create the magnetic field.
- Stability: The high vacuum environment of the system and the feedback loop give the system excellent thermal stability, which is very important for measurement and control.
- Sensitivity: When sufficiently cooled, the levitating platform capabilities can be, therefore, better than the best atomic gravimeters that have been invented to date.
- Scalability: The current developed and demonstrated device is small, but the technology can be expanded to vehicles, and this is feasible.
From its development to its sensors: Four keys to understanding the relevance of this new engine
The development of this revolutionary technology has been marked by several interesting aspects:
- Overcoming Eddy Damping: One of the greatest difficulties turning into a nightmare was ‘eddy damping’, the phenomenon that means that an oscillating system will lose energy over time as the effect of one force or another.
- Quantum Inspiration: The team that created this technology belongs to the Quantum Machines Unit, located at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and it utilizes principles of quantum mechanics when designing their devices; hence, the works that resulted in this invention explore the limits of classical systems.
- Potential Applications Beyond Transportation: While this technology has been mainly concerned with transportation, new avenues in ultra sensitive sensors and active control of oscillating platforms in a number of scientific areas have been made.
The new magnetic levitation engine could be the future of hydrogen or, on the contrary, remain an experimental model. The truth is that we have seen almost an infinity of new prototypes that work with fuels never seen before, such as the TATA air engine or the nuclear engine that Einstein predicted, and now they have been manufactured. All of them are inventions that make it clear that EVs may not be the future, or at least not as we would have thought at the time. Do you think Tesla has reason to worry?
